Truck mounted concrete pumps of this type are mobile tools, which can be utilized with a full 360.degree.-swing range of the mast base with the articulated mast at an extended horizontal position. The operator is responsible for controlling the self-propelled concrete pump and for the positioning of the concrete end hose at the last arm of the articulated mast. He must thereby control more than two rotatoric degrees of freedom of the articulated mast through the associated driving systems during the movement of the articulated mast in the nonstructured three-dimensional work space while paying attention to the conditions at the edge of the building site. With the use of proportional radio telecontrols the operator's work was made easier in such a manner that the operator is no longer linked with a cable spacially to the self-propelled concrete pump. However, there exists furthermore the risk that uncontrolled movements at the end hose can occur during a single-axis operation, thus endangering the building site personnel. To make handling of the large manipulator easier, instead of the individual control of the rotatoric degrees of freedom of the articulated mast it has already been suggested to move the end hose through suitable computer-assistance in a Cartesian x-, y-, z-coordinate system with the help of control levers, whereby a frame-fixed or building-site-fixed coordinate system can be selectively chosen. ("Computer Controlled Concrete Distribution", Dr. -Ing. Hartmut Benckert, Putzmeister-Werk, Pages 111-119, 8th Int. Symposium on Automation and Robotics, IPA (FHG) Stuttgart 1991). However, this type of operation has proven to be rather complicated in many cases since the operation of the control levers needed for this cannot be easily brought into harmony with the optically recognizable sequences of movement of the articulated mast.
Starting out from this the basic purpose of the invention is to improve the conventional large manipulator of the above-disclosed type in such a manner that it will be possible for the operator to control any points in the area within the reach of the articulated mast by simple manipulations of the operating elements.